Happy offices

More and more companies are creating wellness strategies at work and promoting measures that enhance happiness in their offices. Studies have shown that happy offices have more productive employees that are involved in the company. So much so, that some companies are incorporating a new professional profile into their workforce: the Happiness Director.

Companies that favour pleasant working environments have happier employees, which leads to a 30% increase in work productivity and can increase creativity by 86%. Similarly, a happy workforce improves employee health indicators by 20%, thus reducing the costs of sick leave for the company.

What is a happy office like?

The factors that determine happiness at work include: a good working environment, flexible hours and the design of the office. Here are some factors to take into account in the configuration of the workspace:

Chill-out areas

These non-work areas develop employee creativity and improve personal relationships between office users. Also, chill-out areas favour teamwork and the development of work synergies.

Collaborative environments

Offices tend to be increasingly more welcoming and imitate a homely feel, leaving behind the cold and individual space design of the past. Happy offices combine meeting rooms where joint work can be carried out, with isolated spaces that favour concentration and communal and open rooms to encourage teamwork.

Biophilia and lighting

Biophilia consists of incorporating nature-inspired elements such as plants and natural textures into offices to generate stress-free work environments. The offices that implement the biophilic design have happier and more productive employees.

Employee wellbeing

Lastly, happy offices try to avoid their employees having sedentary lifestyles and encourage sports. Many companies provide their employees with training during working hours in corporate gyms or outside the company.

It is increasingly important for companies to be aware of the benefits of turning offices into more pleasant work spaces. This happy office trend is expected to become more and more significant as Millennials begin to make up a larger part of the workforce and occupy managerial positions.